If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the forum FAQ and the House Rules and Forum Guidelines.
You will have to register before you can post. If you find your registration is rejected, please try again using a different username. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

An FM Career - Now With Added Bitterness.

Stoke have probably experienced their most successful period in recent times. They were promoted in 2008 to English Premier League and have sinced remained in England's Top Flight, with finishes of 12th, 11th and most recently 13th. This has been down to Stoke making their home ground, Britannia Stadium 'a fortress', with opposition managers claiming it the hardest place to go to. Stoke have their fans to thank for this, providing arguably the best atmosphere in the EPL. An FA Cup run to the Final last year also granted Stoke the opportunity to play in Europe for the first time since 1975 and it is a tribute to their recent success.

The recent transfer window saw Stoke make big money signing in order for them to bulk the squad out in preparation for Europe. They signed Peter Crouch (10M), Wilson Palacios (8M), Cameron Jerome (Und.), Jonathon Woodgate (free), Matthew Upson (free).

JULY - OCTOBER 2011 UPDATETRANSFER NEWS
First thing I did when took over as Stoke, was to look through the all 3 squads and figure out what I was working with and what I needed to do with it all. I noticed the sheer amount of deadwood in the reserve side and full first team squad, whilst also noticing a couple of promising youngsters. I was only given about 300K to spend on transfer markets so I had to sell if I wanted any players to come in to the side, in hope of improving it. Therefore I sold Tom Soares and Carlo Nash, as well as sending out no less than 10 players out on free transfers. This gave me an extra 1M to play with in the transfer market and after careful scouting and deliberation I signed a 19yr old Danish AM/ST, Rasmus Falk. He was definitely a signing for the future but also allowed me another option up front because of my seemingly injury prone strike force.

PRE-SEASON
This saw me go on a tour of Holland (Netherlands, whatever you want to call it) and play a few other decent teams just to slowly build up the fitness and bring them back up to speed. Overall, however it was quite a disappointing set of results and not really setting out as I mean to continue!

PREMIER LEAGUE
Only 6 games into the season but I sit in a poor 14th position, with 1 win, 2 draws and 3 losses. Although I have to say that it has been a difficult start in terms of teams we have played. A disappointing performance against Tottenham was the only heavy loss, whilst in other games it has gone right down to the wire.EUROPA LEAGUE
After convincingly making it through the qualifying rounds of the competition I got drawn in, in my opinion, the group of the death. Schalke, Anderlecht and CSKA Sofia. Two great results in the first two games leaves me top of the group and in a good position to qualify for the knockout rounds.

LEAGUE CUP

A great comeback from my side and a well fought victory against Man City, up yours!

CURRENT SQUAD

New signing Palacios has done well, slotting in brilliantly with his determined attitude and workrate, he has dominated midfield and scored a few on the way.

League Table
We've had some mixed results so far this season, with big results against Fulham, Blackburn and Swansea. However we've been on the end of some big defeats from Sunderland and both Manchester clubs and this has been the story so far this season - really good results and some shocking results. At one point we were 7th in the league and only 2pts away from Arsenal but now I'm sat in 11th place with all mid-table teams lingering around.
League Cup
After that great 3-1 victory over Man City, we came up against Carlisle from league 1 and somehow managed to draw 3-3 after extra time. This then took it to the dreaded penalty shootout and there we lost, a disappointing result against lesser opposition.

FA Cup
Here we came up against fellow Premier League side Norwich drawing 1-1 in the initial encounter, then Norwich came out 2-1 victors after the replay which sent us out of the FA Cup, with the board angry at my efforts in this competition. They felt I could win it.
Europa League
Perhaps the most surprising set of results came in Europe! I managed to win five out of six games, only losing to Schalke 3-1 after I had beat them 2-0 away from home. This meant that I finished top of Group L and will now face Ukrainian side, Metalist in the first knockout round.

January Transfer Window
In this recent transfer window I felt that throughout the first season I didn't have enough cover on the wings, so I set out to purchase two wingers for both sides of the pitch. This saw me purchase Yassine El Ghannassy (1.5M) and Bjorn Helge Riise (1.3M). Marc Wilson became unhappy at the lack of first team opportunities and wished to be transfer listed but I couldn't sell him, therefore he went out on loan to Fulham for a fee of 160K with a view to purchase at 2.4M.

And my first season in charge of Stoke has come to an end, thank god for that. A shambolic run of form in the latter half of the season meant we were confined to no success at all. Who said FM is too easy?! In summary I found my first season full of ups and downs, a great effort in Europe halted by a poor effort in the league. Oh and it didn’t help that my strikers alternated the times in which they were injured/wanted to score. Ten million pound signing Peter Crouch was injured for the majority of the season and didn’t even score one goal. Yes, you heard right, no goals in the whole season. Goodbye, Mr. Lanky.

PREMIER LEAGUE – A mid table position, 12th in fact, is very poor in my opinion. We started so well but results dwindled towards the end of the season as players tired and morale dropped significantly. At home we lost games we should have won, which is disappointing to say the least as I wanted to make the Brittannia a fortress.

EUROPA LEAGUE – As you will have seen earlier in the thread, I got knocked out in the quarter finals on away goals, to Trabzonspor. That was a real kick in the teeth for the team and I feel as if that was the downfall of our season, when morale dropped. Although, I can take real positives out of these performances against quality opposition such as Schalke and Dynamo Kyiv.

SQUAD OVERVIEW – The squad is obviously aging and several contracts of the older players run out now so this leaves me with a great opportunity to overhaul the squad, or at least add some fresh faces. The older players were always complaining about lack of playing time too, players such as Jonathon Woodgate, Matthew Upson and Tomas Sorensen. I need younger players that can do the job when they step in but won’t moan at the lack of playing time. I was disappointed with the input from Kenwyne Jones too and I just couldn’t find the right role for him.

KEY PLAYERS

Ryan Shawcross – He was always dominant at the back and score quite a few goals from corners, the good old Stoke way. Chelsea and Tottenham are interested in him but I will do all I can to keep him, or if a huge offer comes I may have to accept.

Ricardo Fuller – In the games he played, especially in Europe, he delivered with a few goals. It’s a pity that he’s always injured and with his contract coming to an end, I’m not sure that I’ll be negotiating a new one.

Jermaine Pennant – An architect to most of our goals, he really turned it on in Europe and when he got injured, our form hurt too.

Wilson Palacios – Integral part of the team, when he played well so did the team.

PLAYER PROGRESSION

Rasmus Falk – He has progressed well and will become a pivotal part of my formation next year, hopefully slotting into the AMC position nicely. 4-1-1-3-1 FTW!

Yassine El Ghannassy – What a name, I always have to check when I type it up! Yassine will also be a part of my new philosophy for the club, playing AML, adding some much needed spark to my lacking forward line.

TRANSFER TARGETS

Seydou Doumbia – Will probably break the bank but I will do everything I can to sign him. I see him as a perfect player to play up front by himself, strong quick and a great finisher.

Ciaran Clark – The young rotation player I am after in defence, 22yrs old and only playing reserves for Villa.

Wilfried Zaha – A young striker that I have been scouting for a while, one for the future.

TRANSFER NEWS
I did have 3 targets that I had identified in the previous season, Seydou Doumbia, Ciaran Clark and Wilfred Zaha. I opted against them as firstly Doumbia was going to cost me 12M+ and Clark 5M, then finally I didn’t see Zaha fitting in. Instead I signed 3 different players in the form of, ST Jordan Ball (375K), CB Darnel Situ (1.7M), CM Rasmus Elm (6M) and finally ST Gary Hooper (9M) from Celtic, spending 17M in total. On the out were several players most on free transfers but players sold for cash were; Cameron Jerome (1M), Thomas Sorensen (250K), Glenn Whelan (1M), Dean Whitehead (500K). Some teams definitely got some bargains as I’m finding it very hard to sell not needed players. I even tried to sell Crouch for 5M but no one was having it.

PRE-SEASON
This season we went on a tour of Italia, playing 4 matches in total against Chievo, Fiorentina, Atalanta and Lazio, then coming back home to play Burnley, Sporting CP and Celtic. We won no games at all, yet another disappointing pre-season.

PREMIER LEAGUE
A decent start, 6 games played and an equal amount of wins, draws and losses. That’s 2 for those that are struggling to work that one out. I have been very inconsistent though which is worrying.

LEAGUE CUP
Two games into the league cup and two wins against rivals Crewe and Sheffield United. I’m using it as an opportunity to give some games to my second string.

SQUAD OVERVIEW
I’ve gotten arid of a great deal of the older players in order to give youth a chance, as well as freshening up the side in hope of more energetic performances. Daniel Bachmann at only 18yrs old becomes my second choice keeper and had to play the first couple of games of the season because of an injury to Begovic. Overall, I’m reasonably happy with my squad as I seemed to have depth but not sure whether it is GOOD depth.

S.c.f.c

Hey, I'm doing a stoke save too (because i support them )
have only sold Danny collins, listed nash.

Signed Ben alnwick (300k), as Nash wants to leave
as well as jack robinson on loan from liverpool,
Zenden (Free) [has ripped the prem apart ]
Macheda on loan from man united scored 5 goals in four games

Transfer News
I have brought in three new signing and one player on loan. Andras Nagy, Felice Natalino and Manuel Almunia were agreed before January whilst Tomas Hubocan came in on loan from Zenit. I have high hopes for Nagy as he has been labelled as a future star of the club. The other signing Felice Natalino is a young player I got for free, who is also one for the future. Almunia comes in as my backup keeper.

Premier League
Well what a shambles it has been so far, I went on a run of 13 games with only one win and at one point lingered around the relegation zone. At the moment I’m 12th and need a top half finish to satisfy my promise pre-season. This is definitely not what I was expecting and I believe it is somewhat down to my formation therefore I’m going back to the good old 4-4-2!

League Cup
I got knocked out in the quarter final to Liverpool, losing 1-0 but I wasn’t really concentrating on this. Ok maybe I was…

FA Cup
In the third round I came up against Sheffield United and won 2-1 in a scrappy game within the midst of my form slump. I almost lost this one too!

A very poor first half of the season and hopefully we pick ourselves up now and strive on to Europe spots but I find that highly unlikely.
Here’s to not getting sacked!

Well again, what a rollercoaster ride of a season! This season to be quite honest was harder than the first, a lot harder. At one point I hadn’t won a game in the league for 13 matches, yet somehow I still managed 7th in the league and a Europa League spot! But I really never had a chance of climbing any further up the league. It was the same old story regarding the squad, players would go through periods of games where they would have an amazing run of games – then proceed to play the rest of the season as if their job had been done.

PREMIER LEAGUE
7th in the league was not reflective of how the season went. Any other season we would have been lucky to finish in the top half of the league and had it not been for the top four teams smashing others around us, it would have been a different story. Man Utd romped the league running away with 100 points and their third consecutive league title. Surprisingly Aston Villa were relegated along with Norwich and QPR suffering from second season syndrome. My new signing top scored for me in the league with 9 goals, 6 of them coming in the first 10 games of the season.

FA CUP
We managed again to get to the fifth round but then disappointingly losing 2-0 to Bolton. However, I’m not too bothered about this as I ended up getting a European spot anyway, thanks to Chelsea finishing one spot above us in the league but somehow also winning the Champions League.

KEY PLAYERSRyan Shawcross – Again he was a stalwart in defence and is attracting attention from all the big clubs, Tottenham reportedly willing to offer 15M to prise him away.

Jermaine Pennant – He led the assists chart in the Premier League with 16, again being an integral figure for my team much like last year. He is getting older now though and with both him and Riise 30, it might be time to look for some promising youngsters or if I can find an established player on the cheap.

Gary Hooper – He was banging them in at the start of the season and then went over 11 hours of football without a goal. His start of season form though was lethal!

Andras Nagy – Not so much a key player but he scored two important goals in the league to take us to 7th position and had it not been for him, we may not be in Europe now.

SQUAD OVERVIEW
The squad is starting to look slightly better now and a great deal younger, this will only be helped through the retirement of both Danny Higginbotham and Manuel Almunia. Although now I have to look for another back up keeper who will be happy with sitting on the bench as Begovic is outstanding, or maybe I should just sit Bachmann on the bench?

YOUNGSTERS
March came around and my youth candidates came through. Unlike last year some were quite good and helped my U18’s squad on their way to being Group 6 champions! Well done! Players such as Kyle Eastham and Steven Loy were integral in the triumph.

FINANCES
We began to struggle towards the end of the season on the financial front, being claimed to be poor financially by the board. It seems as if I may have to cut back on wages this year and not spend so much on transfers. Hopefully though, I won’t have to sell key players.

You can push it higher than that, surely! That's pocket change to Man City and Barcelona!

I saw someone in a GD thread that was being harassed by Man City for a youngster (this is in FM12) and got fed up, countering with a request for 1.5 million pounds and 150 million pounds after 20 international appearances, which Man City somehow accepted!

You can push it higher than that, surely! That's pocket change to Man City and Barcelona!

I saw someone in a GD thread that was being harassed by Man City for a youngster (this is in FM12) and got fed up, countering with a request for 1.5 million pounds and 150 million pounds after 20 international appearances, which Man City somehow accepted!

Transfer News
This season I needed to bulk out my squad for Europe and this saw me bring in five new faces, four transfers and a loan signing. Into the team came, Tomas Hubocan (2.3M), Fabian Delph (3.5M), Tom Cairney (3.6M) and Joe Mattock (1.4M) – three of these signings being English. Hubocan was on loan for me last year and impressed me so much that I duly signed him up. This years loan signing is Andrea Mantovani from Palermo for a fee of 525K, I opted for a loan signing again as no other left backs offered value for money.

Europa League
I strolled through the qualifiers with ease, beating teams by over 8 goals on aggregate. This then allowed me to progress through to the group stages to face, Sparta Prague, Spartak Moscow and Sturm Graz, all with 700+ mile away trips involved.

Squad Overview
The squad is getting younger by the season now and with the addition of three young English players, it stands us in good stead for the forthcoming seasons. That along with the retirements of Higginbotham and Almunia has brought our average age down to 25, far from the aging team I had at the start of my career. I now have depth on the wings too, which I never used to have. The progression of Nagy has also been pleasing and he adds another option up front.

I also have a new assistant manager in the form of former Barnsley goalkeeper, David Preece – who said feeder clubs are just for players!

As far as I’m concerned this has been my worst spell at the club and I am actually surprised that I haven’t been sacked yet. The team hasn’t been able to string together a length of good performances unlike last term.

TRANSFER NEWS
No one has come in the past transfer window as I didn’t feel the squad needed improving but rather the cohesion of the team needs to improve, which also led to a change in tactics from my usual 4-4-2 into an asymmetrical 4-2-3-1.

PREMIER LEAGUE
I currently sit in 13th position with 25pts from 23 games, with some very concerning results along the way. My form has been terrible and I haven’t been able to find a consistent team throughout the most part of the season. I highly doubt I will make my media prediction of 7th.

LEAGUE CUP
To be quite honest my squad hasn’t been consistent enough in order to challenge on all fronts, however I didn’t expect to be beaten by Middlesbrough in the third round. It was disappointing but not the end of the world.

FA CUP
Again I struggled in this competition, firstly in the third round against Peterborough in where they took us into a replay. Luckily we progressed through that but sadly couldn’t against Southampton, beating us 1-0.

EUROPA LEAGUE
Well wow, how close was it?! In the final game we scored in the last few minutes to win the game but that still wasn’t enough to put is through with three teams finishing on 10pts and even though I had the best goal difference it didn’t matter, we didn’t get better results against the other teams. This has probably been the downfall of our season, as since then results haven’t gone our way.

KEY PLAYERS – SO FAR

Andras Nagy – This fella is turning into a great striker, he currently leads out goal scoring charts and has got us some vital points in games. And even after signing a five year contract, he is still attracting attention from Man City.

Ryan Shawcross – He has again been solid at the back and will be vital to the team turning around the season in the coming months.

We need to see better performances from key players such as Jermaine Pennant, Rasmus Falk and Robert Huth. Hopefully now that all we have to do is play in the league, we will benefit and see some better results that will lead to a charge up the table.

This easily is my worst season so far! After being knocked out of Europe and both domestic cups in the early stages it left my sole focus upon the league. You’d have thought this would have benefited me right? Well it was not to be.

PREMIER LEAGUE
In the league we were predicted to come 7th but we finished five places lower and in a measly 12th. Inconsistent results, twelve wins, seven draws and nineteen losses confined us to only 43pts and well adrift of last season’s points total. I just never managed to find a consistent set of results, to at least push us up the table. If I’m to progress any further in this career with Stoke I must at least consistently keep getting into Europe, in order for me to attract better players to the club. Oh and losing 8-0 to Man City, to literally hand them the league title from United, doesn’t help.

EUROPA LEAGUE
As you saw in the last update it was a very close group with three teams finishing on 10pts, Sturm Graz, Spartak Moscow and us. However sadly we were the team to get knocked out and couldn’t better our form from our first season in Europe.

DOMESTIC CUPS
Again we were disappointing all round and didn’t manage to build up a good cup run that could of ended us up in Europe. The FA and League Cup went much like the rest of the season.

KEY PLAYERSRyan Shawcross – Yet again he got Fans Player of the Year and it’s hard to imagine him staying on at the club much longer, especially now he is starting in the World Cup for England.
Andras Nagy – My top goal scorer this season at only 19 years of age, he bagged 17 goals and ended up with five Young Player of the Month awards.

Assuming the board are still happy what's the plans for the summer, revamping the squad?

The board are content with my performances at the moment. I told them I'm aiming for a top half finish and they gave me 21.5M to spend and a 715K wage budget, hopefully I can put that to use and get a good left back, right winger and that's all really. Although it's hard to find a decent LB at the moment and no players that I could splash my budget on want to come to Stoke.